


body of a woman, white hills, white thighs

by carouselfancy



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Body Worship, Cunnilingus, F/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:47:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22904944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carouselfancy/pseuds/carouselfancy
Summary: Edér hears some veryinterestingnoises coming from the Watcher's quarters.
Relationships: Edér Teylecg/The Watcher
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	body of a woman, white hills, white thighs

Edér can't sleep.

Between hunting down his god in the form of a living adra titan, and the Watcher confessing her love for him, he's too wrapped up in his thoughts, like a swirling vortex in his mind. He doesn't usually mind Serafen's snoring, or Tekēhu's sleep talking—his time in the army had made him capable of sleeping through just about anything. But tonight, he tosses and turns on his cot, unsuccessfully willing away the image of Io's face that is burned on the insides of his eyelids.

It's because of this fitful tossing and turning that he hears the noise.

It's so faint at first he almost misses it, and he might have easily dismissed it if it hadn't happened a second time, and he's confident he hears that one. The tiniest grunt, so muffled he can't quite determine the location of origin, but distinctly audible nonetheless.

So for lack of having something better to do, he rises from his cot to investigate the sound.

There it is again—a faint " _ ah _ ," followed by a gasp. He's certain it's coming from below deck, and not one of the deckhands above, and he scans the cots all around him, only to find sleeping faces all around. His brow furrows, and he stands as still as he can in the middle of their makeshift barracks, waiting for the sound again.

A gasp, and Edér’s eyes widen as he turns slowly to face what he now knows is the source of the noise. The captain’s cabin. He’s sure of it, and the very thought makes his chest constrict.

He knows he should return to his cot, put his pillow over his ears and pretend he’d never heard a thing, but his eyes are glued to the door and he can’t seem to move his feet. He hears another gasp, and his imagination helpfully supplies an image of what her face might look like as she makes that sound. He scrubs a hand over his beard, continuing up to scratch the back of his head, and releases a long, contemplative lungful of air.

Finally, after a long moment of frantic deliberation, he turns to make his way back to his cot.

_ “Edér.” _

It’s so quiet, he can almost convince himself it’s only his mind making things up, except that his heart is thumping so loudly against his chest that blood roars in his ears.

He looks at his cot. He can just go to sleep right now, and in the morning it would be so easy to believe that he dreamed this. This doesn’t have to be awkward.

He remembers her face when she told him she loved him. Her eyes wide, long lashes gently grazing her cheeks as she blinked up at him, her teeth worrying at her lips nervously. He’d wanted to kiss her then, he realizes that now, but he’d been too afraid of losing her friendship.

Well, this certainly wasn’t going to help, he thinks, as his fist lands gently against her door once, twice, and a third time for good measure.

The sounds coming from her cabin stop dead, and so does his heart. Had he really just—? Okay. Fine. That was the choice he’d just made, but he can still play it off like it’s nothing. He can duck into the stairway up to the deck. But his feet don’t move.

When Io opens the door, his mouth goes dry. Her long hair is down around her shoulders, wonderfully disheveled, and her face and chest are flushed deep blue. She is clothed only in a long, button-down linen shirt that falls just past the tops of her thighs, and he has to dutifully train his eyes on her face to avoid letting his gaze fall to the curvature of her hips and ass. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was making cow eyes at him, and she bites her lips and tugs on her hair nervously.

He should make up an excuse, something about making tribute to Ondra or wanting to talk about rations, but nothing comes out of his fool mouth. He simply stares at her lips without a thought in his head except to wonder if she tastes like the pineapple she’d eaten for dinner.

She clears her throat quietly. “Edér.”

Her voice is low and husky, and his name falls from her lips in the same soft exhalation of air as it had before he’d knocked on her door. It knocks the wind out of him, and suddenly, he has no interest in leaving well enough alone. 

She seems to have a moment of realization, and stands straighter, shameless, releasing the lock of hair from her nervous grip and moving that hand to her hip. She meets his gaze without any hesitation, and suddenly Edér can’t remember how he ever convinced himself he didn’t  _ want _ her as badly as he does now.

He steps toward her, and she moves aside easily to let him through the threshold, never taking her eyes off him. He closes the door of her cabin resolutely behind him and she does not protest, and when he takes another step toward her, she doesn’t take a step back. The air between them is supercharged with static, like the sea before a storm, and the hair on his arms stands on end. Slowly, so as not to spook her, he steps forward and places his hands on her hips, pulling her into him to close the space between them. He can feel her body trembling in his arms, and he doesn’t allow himself to forget what this means to her. He keeps his hold on her loose, needing her to know that she can leave it whenever she wants. She leans into him, tilting her face up to his, and he grins softly at her invitation. He brings a hand up to cup her face, while the other wraps around her waist, bringing her closer to him so he can press his lips to hers.

She  _ does _ taste like pineapple, and he can’t help but hum in approval against her mouth. A small, happy sound escapes her, and she throws her arms around his neck, as if trying to bring them even closer. She is soft and pliant against him, still flushed and hot as a furnace, and he will happily allow himself to immolate to ash in her embrace.

She surprises him by sucking his bottom lip into her mouth and taking fistfuls of his shirt into her hands, pulling their center of gravity backward. They hit the wall hard, and for a moment Edér wonders if she plans on waking the whole ship. He finds it hard to care, however, with her tongue licking into his mouth and her body pressing so close to his.

Her small hands slip under the hem of his shirt, nails gently scraping over his abs and sending shivers across his skin. She leverages her arms to slip the hem further upward, until she breaks their kiss to push it over his head. She gives him a long, appreciative glance, and Edér laughs. He reaches for her again, cupping her ass through her shirt and groaning at the realization that she is wearing nothing underneath it.

His cock stirs, reminding him what brought him here in the first place.

With near-titanic force of will, he places his hands on her hips and pulls away from her, forcing space between them so he can meet her eyes with a serious, smoldering look.

“Why don’t you let me pick up where you left off?”

Her cheeks flush deep blue, and she swallows audibly. She doesn’t try to speak, merely nods and watches him with wide eyes. He smiles, hooking his finger into her shirt and gently pulling her backward toward her bed. He watches her, wanting to see every expression that crosses her face, reveling in the way her white freckles stand out against the flush on her cheeks.

With a flourish, he spins her and sits her at the edge of her bed, and kneels on the floor before her. He didn’t think her flush could get any deeper, but it does, spreading further across her face and down her chest, drawing his attention to the valley between her breasts with an ever widening smile.

“Tell me what you want,” he tells her quietly, lifting his head to meet her eyes. He can feel her heartbeat pounding against the thin skin of her wrists as he lays his hands on her forearms, and he presses a kiss to the palm of her hand. Io gives him a long look, her eyes flitting from his eyes, to his lips, and finally to his bare torso. He trains his own eyes unwavering to hers, ever patient. Months of sexual tension between them, unspoken and unresolved, has created this moment, and Edér is coiled tight like a loaded spring, waiting for her to release him.

Finally, she takes a deep, steady breath, and on her exhale, breathes, “Kiss me.”

The coil snaps.

Their lips crash together like the waves of a parted sea, and she gasps as his hands travel up the length of her arms, her neck, to thread through her hair. She wraps her arms around his neck, trying to pull him even closer, and Edér grunts, running his tongue along her bottom lip. She opens to him, meeting him with a press of her tongue against his. His hands leave her hair to caress a line down her neck, and his fingers dip under the neckline of her shirt, drifting across her freckled back with feather light touches. She squeaks, breaking their kiss with a gasp of air, and he grins against her mouth. He’s known about her tendency to be excitable, and now he’s curious to find out how far that goes.

Edér presses an open-mouthed kiss into the nape of her neck and she gasps again, tilting her head back to give him easier access. He allows his mouth to explore further, trailing kisses and small nips down her shoulders, dipping his tongue into her clavicle; all the while, she spurs him on with quiet gasps of pleasure. He takes her earlobe into his mouth and she stifles a moan, and Edér returns to her mouth to swallow it.

Io’s fingers thread into his hair and gives it the slightest tug, as if testing him. He doesn’t stop the groan that escapes him, and it seems to please her, so she does it again, slightly harder this time.

When he finally finds the strength to break their kiss, he leans back to look at her. Her hair is more disheveled than before, and now she sports a line of faint bruises that trail down her neck and disappear into her shirt collar. Her lips are dark and kiss-swollen, and her chest heaves as she catches her breath. The corner of his mouth lifts in a self-satisfied smile, and she gives him an embarrassed chuckle in return.

His fingers drift to the top button of her shirt, slipping it through the hole with ease. He watches the fabric fall open the slightest bit, and purposefully drags his eyes back to her face.

“What were you imaginin’, before I got here?”

She blinks and turns her head to look away from him, but he gently takes her chin in his hand and pulls her face back to his, giving her an easy smile. Io bites her lip.

“I… I was imagining you.”

Edér smirks. “I got that,” he says, letting his voice drawl more than usual. He flips another button loose with a slide of his finger. “What was I doin’?”

Her voice shakes, but she looks him in the eye as she answers, “You were using your mouth on me.”

A shiver rolls down his spine. He slides a hand along the outside of her thigh, roving higher as his free hand pulls another button free. With most of her buttons undone, the shirt gapes open, her blue skin catching the moonlight through her window and glowing beautifully. He can see now that her white skin markings travel much further than her neck, arcing gracefully down her sternum and curling around the swell of her breasts. Edér leans forward to press a kiss to the line that curves around her belly button. Her abs clench under his mouth, so he licks his way up her sternum, smiling at the way her skin pebbles with gooseflesh in his wake. Her breaths come in shaky gasps, and when he pulls back from her, he can see the outline of her hardened nipples against her shirt.

“Edér.”

There it is again, his name in her mouth sounding like pure sin, and he wonders if it’s possible to become addicted to just a sound. He reaches up to capture her mouth in his, wishing he could pull every lusty gasp into himself so he can replay them in his mind.

With slow, deliberate movements, he slides the edges of her shirt off of her shoulders, and sits back to watch the material fall away, leaving her bare to him.

His breath escapes him. She is beautiful, ethereal in the moonlight, and he wonders how he has gone this long without being able to appreciate it. Her arms fold over her belly and she clenches her thighs together, and it occurs to him that she must think he’s being critical of her godlike appearance. He takes her hands into his and pulls them away from her body, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb.

“You’re amazing,” he tells her earnestly. She turns her face away from him, furrowing her brow deeply. The thought that she could believe anything else creases his face in a frown, followed immediately by a smile.

“Guess I’ll just have to prove it,” he says slowly. Her gaze snaps to his face, her eyes wide in alarm. He doesn’t give her the chance to speak—he releases her hands and reaches up to cup her breasts, grazing her nipples with his thumbs and grinning at the strained gasp he receives in return. When she looks down at him, her eyes are darkened with lust, and he raises a brow at her as he leans forward to take a nipple into his mouth.

She lets out a surprised exhalation of air and her head falls back, her hair cascading over her shoulders. Edér grazes her nipple with his teeth before circling it with his tongue. Her hands find their way into his hair, her nails dragging across his scalp as she fights against her own voice. He smiles against her breast and flicks his tongue against the nipple, earning him a squeak. When he pinches the nipple of the opposite breast between his fingers, he finally earns a long, low moan.

He releases her with a last flick of his tongue, and grins wickedly up at her. “Careful, now. Got your whole crew sleepin’ just a short walk away. It’d be awful rude to wake them up at this hour.”

She bites the heel of her hand, though he can see her trembling as she does so. Edér’s hands travel further down her torso, his thumbs caressing her skin as they follow the path of her markings. In the wake of his touch, her markings glow faintly with moonlight, and he is entranced. He trails his hands over her belly, around the curve of her hips, down the length of her thighs, and when he reaches her knees, he presses a gentle kiss to each kneecap. Her muscles twitch on contact with his hands, and he gently pulls her thighs apart, letting his thumb graze the soft flesh of her inner thighs as he does so.

She’s resistant at first, nervous and shy, but he drums his fingers insistently on her soft flesh and she yields. He finds her already wet with arousal from her previous activities, and his mouth goes dry at the sight. He lets his fingers explore first, traveling to the apex of her thighs, and his thumb brushes against the thatch of white hair there. She makes a small sound, a muffled squeak, and he laughs, pushing her hips further apart so he can press his body in between her thighs to kiss her softly on the neck.

“Edér, please,” she whispers, and Edér is nothing if not obliging. He bends to press a kiss to the inside of her thigh. Her hands weave into his hair, if only for something to ground her, and Edér hums quietly against the skin of her thigh.

“Is this where you wanted me to use my mouth on you?” He punctuates the question with a kiss to the junction of her thigh and her cunt, and Io whines under her breath. Her fingers tighten in his hair, but she nods all the same.

“You sure?” he asks, pressing his tongue against the same area. Io whines again, and Edér smirks.

“How about here?” He mimics the action on the opposite side, and she releases a shaky breath.

Finally, with a hum of amusement, Edér licks a long, slow stripe up the length of her cunt, and Io moans loudly. She tastes of pineapple here, too, sweet and slightly tangy, and he licks her again, giving her a self-satisfied grunt.

“How about here?” he says finally, and his voice comes out as a husky grunt. She folds her torso over him, her body shaking, and he feels her nod into his hair. Without further delay, he closes his lips around her clit and sucks.

To her credit, she muffles her shout into her hand, tugging on his hair.

Edér is determined to take his time, so he builds her up slowly, pressing kisses to the folds of her labia, using the flat of his tongue to make her gasp his name, before making careful movement to her clit. He flicks the tip of his tongue against her rhythmically, reveling in the soft sighs and stifled groans she releases above him. He increases his speed by the smallest increment, and she gasps his name and bucks against his mouth.

He can feel her thighs trembling around his head, so he lifts them easily to his shoulders, her ankles locking against his back. He splays his palms across her ribs, and she arches her back beautifully, propping herself up on one elbow, her free hand burying itself into her hair. The light of her horns pulses brightly in the dark room, creating a perfect halo.

Edér dips his tongue into her entrance and she cries out, her breathing ragged. She sobs his name, and it spurs him on. His beard is soaked with her arousal as he licks into her, alternating between fucking her with his tongue and swirling it around her clit, using her cries and gasps to guide his way. She looks so deliciously wrecked, writhing against the dark sheets of the bed, and his cock strains against the fabric of his trousers. But tonight is not about him. He has kept her waiting for far too long.

She seems to agree, as her fingers card through his hair and follow the rhythm of his head as he speeds up his pace. She’s begging now, cheering him on with the staccato beat of his name on her tongue, so he wraps his hands around her thighs and pulls her into him, increasing the suction of his lips against her clit, following her cries. He can feel the tension building in the muscles of her thighs, can feel her back arch at a more dramatic angle, before she’s chanting,  _ yes, yes, yes _ , and then she breaks with a gasp, cresting with a cry that she has to throw her arm over her face to stifle. He coaxes her through it, closing his lips around her clit, giving her one last, long suck before she goes completely limp, her last cry dying out with a hoarse exhalation. He releases her, albeit reluctantly, and wipes his beard off on his arm before rising to lift her to her pillows.

He crawls up to lay beside her, pulling her into the crook of his arm. She stretches like a satisfied cat, draping herself over his chest and curling her leg around his calf. Her fingers draw circular patterns over his chest, causing his muscles to twitch and leave his flesh superheated as they travel across it. Edér marvels at how perfectly she fits against him, and how incredible she looks all flushed and dappled with sweat.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmurs, his lips brushing against her temple. Her fingers pause in their questing, her eyes searching his face. “I’m real sorry I didn’t show you sooner,” he adds, his lips twitching with a barely contained smile. His hand at her back sneaks downward to cup the flesh of her rear. She jerks against him in surprise, before beaming up at him. Her leg tightens around his calf, and she reaches her hand upward to pull his face down to meet hers. Their frantic desperation from before has abated, replaced by sleepy adoration and contentment. He kisses her long and slow, trying to convey every moment of wishing and wanting he’s felt for her in the last year. She receives him with a happy hum, her breath warm against his cheek.

She falls asleep with her head on his chest, and the rhythmic rise and fall of her bare chest against his is hypnotizing. He drifts off under the matching glow of the moonlight and the light of her horns, and sleeps better than he has in over a decade.

\---

Edér tries to make a subtle exit from her quarters in the morning, opening the door as slowly as possible to prevent it from squeaking. The moment he steps out into the common area, however, he finds himself at the receiving end of several murderous glares from the crew, who are dining in a haze and looking rather exhausted. Edér freezes like a deer looking down the shaft of an arrow. When he opens his mouth to speak, he is buried in a flurry of thrown boots, hats, tankards, and anything else that can be found at hand.

He covers his head with his arms, shouting in surprise. He tries to look contrite, because really, he does feel a bit bad, but instead he bursts into laughter. He wants to be sorry, he really does, but when he thinks of the naked godlike sleeping on the other side of the door, all he can do is offer to buy them all drinks next time they make berth.

He has a feeling he’s going to be losing a lot of coin in his future.

**Author's Note:**

> God, I'm so sorry.
> 
> The pressure of being one of the only explicit Edér fics on AO3 is _real_ , y'all. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
> 
> If you need to yell at me for my crimes, [I can be found on Tumblr.](http://grrowlithe.tumblr.com)
> 
> The title comes from the poem of the same name by Pablo Neruda. I highly recommend it. Neruda, you sexy, sexy man.


End file.
